Maybe you're thinking about publishing eBooks and wonder whether they're taking off at all and where they're selling the most.

Perhaps you're having a hard time telling regular problems that can be solved from wicked problems that are more challenging to define in an ever more complex world.

Or you find it hard to follow the practiced reasoning in someone's argument.

Off the eBook Shelf, Covering Wicked Problems, and a Walk in the Woods

The three stories that caught my eye this week will provide some clarity -- if not around the answers to those open-ended statements in defining the questions with more clarity.

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As Frédéric Filloux states, eBooks are moving briskly off the shelf, in some countries faster than in others. India, Australia, the UK and the United States top the eBook market.

Which genres sell the most?

Fiction is doing twice better than all other categories together. The Digital Book is the medium of choice for fiction: a) eBooks are set to be cheaper that print and price elasticity is now a proven fact, the cheaper a book is, the more likely a reader is to try it; b) e-commerce breeds impulse buying (cf the famous “One-Click® feature); c) readers can test the product more efficiently than in the printed world as Amazon and the iBooks Store make larges sample available for free. No surprise, then, to see the Fiction category holding well.

A testimony to the value of a well-told story coming from a distinct point of view.

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Jay Rosen shares the script of his keynote address to the second UK conference of science journalists. In covering wicked problems, he first defines the term, then outlines ten ways to imagine how a wicked problem beat would work.

The highlights:

Any beat where the important knowledge is widely distributed should be imagined from the beginning as a network.

[...] Jumping back and forth from a global understanding that is constantly in revision to local solutions that are constantly being tested: this is a better way to go. Better than: gather information, outline the options, analyze cost, pick the best option, hire the experts, and implement. Agile development is learned behavior for coping with wicked problems.

[...] People become expert in their own systems for ignoring reality. Systems become expert in concealing from their operators wicked problems. That is something we can learn to report on.

As Rosen says, we don’t understand the problem until we’ve solved it. And you don't get everyone on the same page, no matter how hard you try.

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Control Risk CEO Richard Fenning invites us for a walk in the woods from where we might get a glimpse of problem diagnosis, something we've all gotten quite good at doing:

But on reflection it occurred to me: what happens if Greenspan was wrong? What happens if he has always been wrong? How do we know? And it struck me how vulnerable we are to the reputation of great experts like Alan Greenspan. Because most of us struggle to grasp the fiendish complexity of modern economics, we are too readily in awe of those that do or appear to do so. A bit like how we used to treat doctors before we all started diagnosing our ailments on the internet.

There are so many variables one can blame if things don't work out anyway.

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Is complexity in need of solving, or are we in need of absolving ourselves from even trying so we can focus on a more concrete path of commerce?

Have a great weekend everyone.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.

"If we can get gardens growing, food in the classroom and school dinners improving, we've got a really potent, inspirational catalyst for change. This is a great opportunity for us all to come together and do something that really makes a difference."

Performance can and should be measured as part of a process along a continuum designed to expand reach, increase engagement, build influence, and request action on behalf of your business -- with social media integrated in the communication mix.

From how to develop a case study, to examples of brands that have implented successful digital/social strategies, a best of post you might find useful as you plan for the second part of the year.

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How to Develop a Case Study

Did you know that case study is an expression marketers and sales professionals borrowed from science?

When we talk about case studies, what we mean is a bit simpler, although getting to the results takes work. We mean telling the story of how we progressed through solving a problem and delivering results.

The Case for Social Media in B2B

Do you have a user group forum, conference, or a customer- and best-prospect-event?

In my 20-year experience working in businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) these are some of the best ways to build relationships with your customer and prospect base -- in the same room, doing something together.

It doesn't follow a predictable pattern and applies to some many disciplines. In a two-book series titled May I introduce you? Fiat heir Ginevra Elkann features a lot of people she never met in person, who struck a chord with their work.

There are paths of interconnection that bring you to a person. Then you kind of verify that they’re as interesting as they seem.

People are now multi-talented:

[...] that’s something else we wanted to show that people have that kind of tendency now to do more than one thing. Things are much more interconnected now and people tend to do a lot of different things.

Is there opportunity for your business is to bring together a curated collection of creative people?

One application in B2B: design a guide featuring a number of clients solving business problems creatively.

"The reviews were terrible. They didn't understand what we were doing. They gave the fourth album a one paragraph review. There's a lot of material on that: Black Dog, When the Levy Breaks, Stairway to Heaven... one paragaph. They didn't have a clue of what was going on. I just didn't bother reading the papers from that point on."